Well, Hello Dolly!

Introducing the Newest Members of Foundation Family Farms...

"Dolly"-our someday milk cow-currently a three month old hefier calf. She's a Jersey-Angus Mix, given to us by dear friends.
Under her is "Chili Pepper" and in front of them is "Cayenne Pepper" our two newborn goatlings from mother "Paprika". They were born July 13 during dinner.  It was great fun to hear and see the excitement of all the children knowing that "Paprika" was giving birth while we were eating.  Dinner was a good excuse to get everyone out of the barn so she could have a little privacy, also.  When we were done eating everyone hustled out to see not just one baby, but two! 
It seems that the three have formed the "Future Milk Suppliers" Club.

So, come on down to the farm! The little kids are curious to meet you!

Easy to be Distracted

It is the season that Dear Farmer and Family can be all too distracted.
There's chickens to be housed and cared for, buildings to build, the garden to plan and plant, goats hooves need to be trimmed, calf needs brushed, house needs little tweeks here and there, people to visit with, unending chores, fences to build, tractors to fix and clean, barns to clean, yard to cut....the list goes on and on....
With such a list, it's hard to "Stay On Task!"  {Perhaps that will be our theme this year...hmmmm....}
Priority given to things that must be done IMMEDIATELY!, like housing the little chicks.  And our missing 200...they came in yesterday...all 300 of them.  Someone at the chickery is having a good laugh, we think. The littlest chicks cannot fend for themselves, depending on us for their every need...
What else on the farm ranks in that same class? The smallest children.  Okay, both go on the highest priority.
Next on the list probably comes the rest of the animals, and medium size children.
And so on, and so forth...
But the list becomes hazy when the sun is shining and the birds are singing...and all Dear Farmer really wants to do is walk among the cows.  Sit in the shade and admire the beauty of creation.  Watch the children play Frisbee on a warm summer night.  These are both the reasons to keep plugging on through the work of today...and reasons to stay on task tomorrow.
Distractions can be the making of the memory...or the downfall of organization...
And so...we attempt to "Stay On Task!"
However, if you come to visit us, we'll happily be distracted!!!

Welcome the new Groundhog!

While Dear Farmer was preparing to do chores this afternoon he had the opportunity to witness a "waterbirth" by Yellow tag #1.  Of course, this first time mother would choose the day that it's raining, snowing, and icing all at once to give birth to a little calf in a sludge puddle.
Dear Farmer had to get the pair into the barn, which is quite the chore when the weather is as it was, and set up with water and hay.
Dear Farmer, calf and cow were all covered in sludge from head to toe(or hoof),but everyone's now in the barn dry and safe.
The Wife called the calf "Groundhog", appropriate for the day and because we've done this all before.

Dear Farmer is "Old Fashioned"

I know that title surprises you, doesn't it?!
Dear Farmer spent the day battling the weather.  Freezing snow and rain mix pelted him all day.  Add to that the loveliness of high winds and biting cold, it was perfect winter weather for the North.  That is what Dear Farmer worked in all day.  Walking back and forth between hay feeders, with hay and without hay to get more hay. Opening and closing hydrants for water tanks.  Carrying feed buckets for the chickens, watering the chickens, gathering eggs, building pens for the goats and "polar bear"-puppy in the barn, so they were sheltered from the weather, and chasing calves (who were jumping through the feeders) back into the barnyard.  That was all Dear Farmer did, all day, twelve hours.
Now when Dear Farmer walked in the door to the house(frozen) he relaxed in the warm room next to the woodstove...and picked up a book.  Totally oblivious to the bug-eyed teenage Farmer's Daughters sitting on the couches in the room.  The girls had a crazed look in their eyes.  The look that said, "I haven't talked to anyone but my family ALL DAY!"  There were dolls on the floor mixed with legos and pattern blocks, a nice array of board books and wood chips decorated the area directly where he sat thawing.  But he didn't notice.  Suddenly, as if the veil had been lifted from his face, he saw everything.  The Farmer's Daughters, the mess, the twitching eyebrow on the Wife's face.
"Eh?" , said Dear Farmer
He was answered (enthusiastically) by all the Farmer's Daughters all at once.  Though it sounded like dull humm of an outboard motor in water, there was one common thread he could understand from all the girls..."The storm has taken out the internet!"{GASP!}
What that means is on this particularly miserable day, while all the children had off school-work, they were cooped up inside and not one of them could stream a video, not one could text a friend, no one could check out the blogs, the news, or social media of any kind.  It had been a day where all they can do was read a book or talk to eachother.  They played games together, they painted eachother's nails, they drew pictures of animals, we had conversations.  It was a great day!  But quite frankly the Wife was ready to have everyone go to bed, her ears had begun to ring from so much interaction. (thus the twitching eyebrow).
But the internet being gone was no big deal for Dear Farmer.  He was glad it was gone...we had an old fashioned evening.  All was quiet, the Old Fashioned kind of quiet.

Cows Go Take a Hike!

Due to Dear Farmer's excellent containment fencing-we haven't had cows get out in the road(also the front of the house) in a while.  No, instead they decided last night it would be nice to take a hike...ahem...in the back 40.  So, when Dear Farmer went out to do chores in the morning...he was missing about half his herd.
The call went out in the house for "all hands on deck!" and we sprung into action.
The Hausfrau Farmer's Daughter had to watch the house...clean up breakfast, make sure the walls didn't cave in.
The WhizBang!Farmer's Daughter had to watch children...dressed, chores getting done, and making sure they all stayed safe.
The Keeper of the Flame had to do his chores and take care of the animals at home.
Everyone else just had to obey the "biggers" in charge.
The Wife got all bundled to go out and help Dear Farmer.  The cows were back...Wa-a-ay back...out past the nearest neighbors and down almost to the next township.
Thankfully Dear Farmer's voice can carry pretty well on a crisp morning.  "Come On, Cows! Let's Go! Let's Go! Let's Go!" , he shouted as he clapped. The cows heard that call eighty acres away and 'bellered response. They were on the move, the hike had to be made back home.
While Dear Farmer was calling and clapping the Wife took the farm-dog out for a "training session". The farm-dog was all excited to get to move the cattle around!  Farm-dog helps, be we usually lock her up when it's important to have the cows go where we NEED them to...because she's just not that good yet.  But this time, she did okay.  At first she was really careful and listened really well to us-but then she got cocky and tuned us out.
 All-in-all the hike home went well....the cows are back in the pasture, the house is still standing, the chores were done, the animals were cared for.  Just the beginning of the day....

Dear Farmer Fights for Life

The Wife got called out to the hay barn early this morning by Dear Farmer, he had a calf down.  He simply said, "We've got to TRY!"
The Wife has learned to grow some thick skin-especially here on the farm.  She assessed the situation: a calf, alone, down in mud(because they always go to the worst location, never the best), having seizures.  There was truly no way to fix this.
However, Dear Farmer is in the business of Life.  Seems strange, as he raises cattle for your table, but he's genuinely in the business of raising, not killing...and for sure not letting "the least of these" die alone in the mud.
It took two hours.  The Wife and Dear Farmer setting up bedding and pen, hauling the calf(they weigh a lot!) from behind the barn in muck up to our knees to inside the barn-protected from the weather.  Then we cleaned the mud off the calf and warmed organic buttermilk and creame to spoon feed her.
The background of the story is, this calf had a mother who loved her and cared for her, but somehow the mother broke her foot and had to be sent to butcher.  The calf had done pretty well after that, while the herd was on grass, but since moving to the hay barn had set herself apart from the herd. Dear Farmer was watching her slip away...he was hoping it wouldn't get to this point.  He wanted her to THRIVE!  But it doesn't appear she will.
For now, she is comfortable and loved on.  Resting on a clean bed of hay in a warm barn.  Chickens happily laying on top of her and around her.  The dog coming in and licking her nose periodically.  The children spoon feeding her and petting her.
This is the hard part of organic farming: letting nature do it's thing and trying to have little involvement.  But when it comes to valuing every life-Dear Farmer is at the top of the list!  No matter how difficult, messy, or long...nothing gets left alone or behind.

And so we bid farewell to #241...

There was a beginning to this blog...it was the result of telling a friend of Dear Farmer's encounters with one specific cow...#241.  If you look back, that was the first story we shared.
#241 was a mean and nasty cow.  She was always ready to run down Dear Farmer, with no rhyme or reason.  With a disposition so negative, bad feet and no back teeth Dear Farmer had her on the butcher-line several times.  Each time she was to "go" she'd have a calf, and so she would need to stay for the survival of the calf.  Dear Farmer didn't mind too much because she was an excellent mother and she gave wonderful calves...well, he wouldn't mind initially...and then he'd be running back to his tractor with an angry cow chasing him again!  The two of them did this dance for four years.
This past summer #241 had a name change, we called her "Ugly".  She began to loose weight and turned to a mess of bones and skin hanging.  She was not looking good, really bad advertising for an organic farm. So Dear Farmer moved her to the barn and tried many remedies for her, none seemed to help.  Earlier this week Dear Farmer went down to do chores, and "Ugly" was laying on the ground near the feeders, dead.
There wasn't rejoicing.  Dear Farmer is a little disappointed, he would have really liked to have had the upper-hand and eaten her...but not this foe.  We all gave a sigh of relief and a nod of the head.  Acknowledging the passing of the enemy who gave us so many great stories...farewell to #241.

Tagged Calves and Castrated Bull-Calves, and nobody got hurt!

Yesterday was a five hour adrenaline rush!  After a week of fencing containment paddocks and wiring new electric lines on those fences, as well as setting up gates and panels---we were ready for pushing the entire herd through the squeeze shoot and dispersing them into the winter paddocks.  It was a grueling process.
Dear Farmer's job is to look over every bovine that comes in the shoot.  Are they healthy? Do they need a tag in the ear? Male or female? Castrate if needed. Dear Farmer shouts out the number of the animal and color tag to the Wife, who writes down everything Dear Farmer observed on that animal and the tag.  The tags are color organized.  Yellow tags mean: organic female, Blue tags mean: organic male, and White tags mean: non-organic breeding stock.
The Wife's other job is to pray for safety for Dear Farmer as he stands behind a bull and castrates.  It can get hairy(no pun intended).  Here we don't use knives for castration, so there's no shots, no knock-out drugs, and no second chances.  We use a Calbrate Bander, the most amazing device known to farmers and well worth the money spent!!!  It's a thousand times more humane as well!
And we castrate while the animals are on green grass, so there's no fear of infection because there's no messes!
The Farmer's Daughter runs the herd through the containment in into the shoot.  She had quite a time getting those little calves to do what she wanted.  But she was patient and used her knowledge of "energy" well. "Energy" isn't a new-age concept.  It's the force of your emotions and the positioning of your body that drives and animal to do what you want.  Sheep herders use "energy" when training their dogs.
Along with the Housefrau Farmer's Daughter keeping all the little people out of the way, and the Whiz Bang!Farmer's Daughter running back and forth from the Wife to the house for miscellaneous supplies-we had four other farmhands helping out.  Including the VeggieMan, the ChickenGuys, our Model Friend and the HerbGuru. They aren't usually working the cattle with us, but they did a great job filling the gaps.
In the past we have had Dear Farmer run over and stepped on, Dear Farmer kicked, Dear Farmer's Daughter kicked, people thrown, panels and gates beaten by angry cows, people fleeing over fences, and paperwork pooped on.  This year we had none of it! God heard the prayers of the Wife!!!
There's quite an adrenaline rush when working with cattle. It's such a big animal, and we are such little people!  There's people "whooping" and "whistling"!  The occasional yelling to a body to move one direction or another.  It's easy to see why cowboys do what they do, it's fun!  But at the end of the day...when the count was in...112 head of cattle...there's the largest sense of accomplishment.  It's like, no matter how bad Dear Farmer's body hurt, it was all worth it.  Everyone was safe, no one got hurt.  112 Head of cattle grazing contently in a field is a beautiful sight.
 

We live for the emergencies!

The Wives were talking and laughing about all the "emergencies" they have (respectively) had on farms this year.  The laughing was a sign that all the "emergencies" turned out well. In a sense you live from one "emergency" to the next. The down-time is just getting yourself prepared for the next "emergency"...and you anticipate it will be bigger than the last, otherwise you wonder if it was an "emergency" at all.
This morning the Wife and Farmer's Daughter nearly passed Dear Farmer and a neighbor on the side of the road. Thinking it was a neighborly chat, the Wife slowed the vehicle down to wave, and found the two men were corralling a bull-calf that had escaped the paddock.  The Wife did what the Wife has been taught to do: slow vehicle down and put on hazards, following behind the farmers so that the bull-calf wouldn't back-track.  The Farmer's Daughter jumped out of the vehicle and was the presence on the opposite side of the road, and the neighbor's wife ran around opening and closing gates as needed.  It was a team effort, and the bull-calf was back inside the pen all safe.  Dear Farmer assured the neighbor this was nothing, "I had all the steers and bulls out the other night at my place.  You should come over for coffee!"(See Country Hospitality Examples C & B)  The neighbor dropped by some cheese curds as a thank you...they were amazing!
Usually, in farming, what is an "emergency" to one isn't to another...there's nothing new to farmers.  We're doing the same thing that was done at the beginning of time:  raising animals, being stewards of the earth God created, and training the next generation to do the same.
It does seem at little odd, however, that this breed of person...farmers...who seem so dull and slow...they live for the excitement, the thrill, the "emergency"!

"What kind of animal are those?" Dear Farmer answers..."Cows."

Understanding that there is a disconnect in society between the animal and the food that is eaten, Dear Farmer is more than patient with questions from customers...
"Where do the eggs come from if you don't have roosters?"
"How do you get the chickens to go in the coop at night?"
"When do the cows know it's time to birth?"
But the best was when we had a couple of visitors pull up in our driveway, a husband and wife.
They were having an argument, and waved us over to help them.  Dear Farmer and the Wife walked over to the car, pretty sure we were about to be giving them directions to somewhere else.
They were, however, arguing about what kind of animals were grazing in the fields.  The wife in the car said they were cows, the husband said they were pigs.
Now, there's a first. Even in city schoolbooks we thought they had pictures of the different animals...but apparently one of them hadn't paid attention. Dear Farmer, kindly answered, "Cows."  They thanked him and drove away.  Just in case anyone out there drives past our fields...we'll answer your questions, no matter how strange they may seem.  But we will publish the strangest ones we've ever heard in a story like this. {smile}

A Springtime Story about #241

Springtime can be full of answers.  Did we prepare well the winter before?  Where is the water going to run this rain?  How fast will the temperature warm/cool? Do we have enough hay?
Everyday Dear Farmer wakes up is a whole new day of questions to be answered. Our favorite question around here is: how many calves do we have?  If you have livestock, you know the joy of this already.  It is the daily count.  Of course, healthy mothers and healthy babies is the desired outcome.  Sometimes you find the sorrowful cow who dutifully watches guard over her cold-stillborn calf.  More often than not, around here, we have a cute healthy little one who is greeting us in the morning with milk dribble hanging from the chin-hairs, and a mother who is giving us the warning eye "don't come one step closer".  This is the favorite question asked at the table. The favorite story of the day.
(Story disclosure: our cow/calf operation is very natural. So imagine very little farmer intervention, and very little human socialization for the cattle.)
Today the story was about #241 and her calf (sex still unknown, untagged).
#241 is a Belted Galloway with a small portion of Holstein in her genes.  She's one of our "nastiest" cows, but she gives great looking calves!!!  When #241 isn't a nursing mother she's one of the cows that you'd think, "Don't think she likes me being here."  She's one that pushes the herd. So with some authority she has the right to not like you being in "her" pasture. #241 and Dear Farmer have a relationship that usually ends with both of them not being pleased with the other. This was the day Dear Farmer noticed a bright white belt and a tiny little body next to a proud new mama, away from the herd a safe distance.  At first, the joy overtaking him, Dear Farmer began to walk that-a-way to see the newborn and mother.  Until the mother noticed him coming.  With a glint in her eye and fire breathing out of her nostrils the mother bent her head down and began swaying it back and forth (this is the common language of bovine saying "not one step closer!"). Dear Farmer took note of the mother's stance and stopped.  But calmly stayed where he was.  However, the mother wanted him GONE, not just STILL.  And so, she began to walk, then jog, then run his way.  Dear Farmer, as she came closer, noticed exactly who it was! "It's#241!",  Dear Farmer yelled, as he took off for the other side of the fence and onto the tractor.  With Dear Farmer gone #241 was much happier and walked back to her calf. Dear Farmer's daughter (sitting on the tractor) laughed so hard she almost fell off the tractor. Still don't know what she had, male or female, but it is one great looking calf...as near as we can see.